Everything Else Could Wait
by LMG
Summary: H/D Could you just stand there?
1. Chapter 1

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Everything Else Could Wait

He just stood there. He didn't speak.

He didn't reach out his hand to stop him.

He did nothing but stand there.

There had been no fighting, no yelling, no screaming insults. That wasn't his style.

Just a simple, "I love you but I can't do this anymore"

He couldn't give him anymore, he didn't have anything left to give.

So he stood there.

He stood there as everything he had ever wanted, or needed, in his life walked away.

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"I love you but I can't do this anymore" was all that he could say.

There had been no fighting, no yelling, no screaming insults. That wasn't his style.

There was just pain.

Pain so deep and sharp and so hurtful that he couldn't breathe.

He turned and walked away from everything he had ever wanted, or needed, in his life.

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I have given him everything that I am and still I lose him. Why? 

Is my love not enough for him? 

What more does he want? 

What more can I, am I, willing to give?

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Why can't he say it? 

How many times must I tell him I love him before he believes me enough to say it back to me? 

I feel so dead inside now. So cold. So lonely. 

I love him with all my being and I think that he loves me, but he never says it. If only he would tell me, I wouldn't feel I need to leave. 

This is killing me. 

I am not sure I can continue to walk away. Though I know I must.

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Please stop! Why doesn't he stop? 

Doesn't he know how much this is killing me? Doesn't he care? 

He said he loved me but he is the one walking away. 

~~~Oh yes, but you never told him that you love him. You never have.~~~ 

But I do! Doesn't he know that? 

~~~How can he if you have never told him?~~~ 

****

Oh God NO!

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One foot in front of the other 

One foot in front of the other 

keep your back straight 

you can do this 

you can

***************************************************************

"Wait!" Draco said softly.

Harry stopped and stood stiffly though he did not turn around. He wouldn't have the strength to leave if he saw him now.

"Harry I," Draco said as he walked to stand behind him. He could tell that Harry was shivering. 

"I can't do this anymore Draco. It hurts to much," Harry said brokenly, trying to calm his shaking.

"Please Harry, please listen to me. If when I am done you still want to walk away I won't stop you." Draco said nothing for a few minutes letting Harry calm down enough to listen to him. Harry said nothing either but Draco saw his head nod once in agreement.

Draco started slowly obviously feeling his way around the words he was trying to say. He knew this would be his only opportunity to tell Harry how he felt. This was not something that Draco had a lot of experience in, talking about his feelings. But if he didn't talk then he would lose Harry forever and he couldn't do that without a fight.

"I know. I know how much it hurts. Everything is so still. So cold, almost dead. Like someone had punched you in the stomach and you can't breathe. Like there is no light left anywhere, just darkness all around. Like you try to breathe but there is no air. That's how much it hurts to have you walk away."

Draco was not even trying to hold back his tears. He didn't reach a hand up to wipe them off. He needed them to remind him of his pain and what he would lose if this didn't work.

"You know who, and what, I am. And you know what I have done. And you love me despite of it. I am scared that you won't love me when everyone else finds out. I am frightened of losing the man I love to the people he tries to protect. They will not accept me Harry. I know this but you don't want to see it. I couldn't stand the pain you would go through when they rejected me. I am frightened of losing everything that I have ever wanted, or needed, in my life. If I lost you Harry, I would die."

Harry turned quickly to face his lover. He flinched at the raw pain he saw on his face. He watched in wonderment at the tears rolling down his face. Draco never cried. Here he was crying for Harry.

"No Draco NO," Harry pleaded softly, reaching his thumb up to catch a tear and bringing it to his lips to taste its saltiness.

"Harry, I love you."

"I love you too Draco."

The two lovers came together in a kiss that seemed to stop time. A kiss that healed the hurts of moments before. It was soft but contained all the love that had been held back by the silver haired boy. It was filled with a passion that only a first kiss, when love has been declared, could have. 

As they drew apart Draco sighed and with his forehead pressed against his lover's chin he took his hand in his. Searching his piercing green eyes with his silver blue ones he knew it was time to let his misgivings go. 

"Shall we go meet your friends, my love?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two lovers turned to walk into the Great Hall confidant in each other and in the love they had together. They would accept him or they would not, but he wouldn't lose his Golden Boy for them. He would fight to keep him.

Everything else could wait.


	2. Chapter 2

Silence. 

Complete and utter silence.

Where once there was laughing and yelling and loud conversations, now there was silence.

All in the Hall stopped and stared at the doors, here before them was a sight that they had never thought to see.

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, holding hands and smiling into each other's eyes.

It was the silence that made them look away from each other. It was silence that they faced, when they turned to meet the astonished, and some angry, faces of their classmates.

Unconsciously the two lovers moved closer together. The dark haired one moving his arm possessively around the shorter silver haired boy.

No one moved. No one said anything.

Then from the right hand side of the room, the Gryffindor side of course, came a barreling red headed missile by the name of Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's best friend. 

Stumbling to a stop in front of the two he gasped for breath before grounding out, "Get away from him, Malfoy."

Harry shook his head sadly at his best friend, "No Ron, Draco stays right where he is."

From the left-hand side of the room there came a shriek of rage. 

Pansy Parkinson yelled shrilly, "Draco you are engaged to me. Get away from Potter now."

Draco smirked to the girl that he had secretly hated for years, "Can't Parkinson, I am marry Harry here instead." 

There was a scuffle as the other Slytherins stopped her from raging over there. No use in her getting hexed for a boy that obviously didn't want her.

Harry turned to his silver haired prince and smiled gently down at him, "Oh, you are, are you?"

Draco smiled back all the love shining in his eyes, he asked innocently, "Oh, did I forget to ask?" 

"Yes," came the whispered reply.

Draco smirked again, showing for the first time since they had walked thru the door the old Malfoy, "Oopps."

Ron had been struck speechless through the entire exchange. He looked from one to the other and was amazed at the depth of love shining in their eyes as they gazed at each other.

"Harry?" he whispered.

Harry tore his gaze from Draco's and turned to face Ron. This moment would determine if they would still be friends after tonight. He saw Ron's slight shake of his head and his heart broke. Ron was the only one Harry worried about accepting them. After all, Hermione had known for months. She was not happy with his choice but she accepted it.

She knew that this moment hinged on Ron's acceptance of Draco in Harry's life. 

"Ron." Harry whispered back.

Ron said nothing, he just stared at his best friend. The minuets pasted and still he said nothing, he just stared.

Draco was getting impatient. He hated waiting and the Weasel was getting on his nerves. Reaching into his pocket he drew out the case that he had hidden there. He had bought the ring weeks ago, but had been too afraid to ask Harry. Now is a good a time as ever, he thought to himself.

Turning his back to the red haired boy, the Slytherin Prince shocked everyone, including Harry, when he kneeled in front of the Gryffindor Golden Boy.

Harry watched Draco with an unreadable expression on his face as the boy knelt in front of him.

"Harry, would you make me the happiest man on this earth by becoming my husband?" Draco asked in a voice filled with love and fear.

Both boys ignored the gasps of shock and the yells of anger mixed with the catcalls.

Harry kneeled down, copying Draco's stance. Taking his face in both of his hands he loving kissed him on the lips before whispering.

"Yes"

When they looked up Ron was nowhere to be seen and Draco had to catch Harry from faltering with disappointment.

Harry looked down at the man he had just pledged to marry and gave him a smile. Ron would be o.k. or he wouldn't, but right now, that didn't matter.

Harry was where he wanted to be.

Everything else could wait.


	3. Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stay with me," came the anguished plea.

"I can't. I have to go," was the whispered reply.

A light kiss and then silence. He was gone.

He fell to his knees in despair. He wasn't going to come back. If he walked out that door he was going to die tonight.

Draco did not know this for sure, of course. But the dead feeling around his heart knew that this was the last moments he had with the one person who meant everything in his world.

His life, his reason for breathing, his light.

And he had just let him walk away. Oh, he knew that he couldn't stop him but still one more protest wasn't going to be enough to keep him there. Draco had tried but he knew that more would have been futile. Harry would not stay.

He would go no matter what he had said. He would go alone to face his death and his lover would wait till he came back.

If he came back.

Harry had lost a lot for Draco. His best friend had abandoned him, his peers had shunned him, and still he went to fight alone for them. For the ones that had left him, had hurt him. He was going to die for them, he thought bitterly. 

No amount of tears and the angry words he had yelled had made his lover change his mind. 'It is my job' he had told him softly and then kissed away his tears and his anger. He knew that he might not come back and tonight had been the sweetest and most love filled night of their entire relationship. 

It was like, in his own way, Harry was saying goodbye.

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NO! Draco's mind screamed out its anguish. **I WILL NOT LOSE HIM!**

Standing up he strengthened his resolve. He glanced at the kind old eyes of the Headmaster and saw him nod in acceptance of his decision. Harry had left him here to make sure that he didn't follow. With a quirk of his eyebrow, Dumbledore motioned towards the door.

All the fighting and the tears hadn't made Harry stay, but Draco had never said that he wouldn't follow him. He had told him that he would follow him into death but Harry's pleas had made him stay. Harry's tears had made him stay.

"If he dies tonight then so do I," was his final vow to the man would had helped him be who he was now. Dumbledore, who had given him his first chance, had believed in him, and had led him to Harry. He owed the old coot for everything that his life was now.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled for the first time in weeks as he watched the blond Slytherin follow the dark haired Gryffindor to their destiny. Dumbledore smiled softly as the two young men faced thier destiny the way it was always meant for them to do, together.

Draco left the room to follow Harry.

His world, his life, his light.

Because that is all that mattered.

Everything else could wait.

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This was suppose to be a one shot story. It has

evolved into something a little more. I hope that you like it and thank you to all my reviewers.


	4. Chapter 4

Draco had almost let him walk away from him once but he wasn't ever going to let him do that again. They would either live or die tonight.

But, Draco reassured himself, whatever happened they would face it together. Or they would if he could find the stupid git. If Harry died before he could find him he was going to kill him, even if he had to follow him into the afterlife to do it.

He searched the hallways of Hogwarts for his lover, becoming frantic with fear. He was starting to despair of ever finding him again when he came across the one person he least expected see. Ronald fucking Weasley blocking his way was the last thing he needed right now.

"Move it, poor boy," Draco snarled.

The red haired git shook his head in mock sadness at Draco. "You'll never change, ferret boy," he sneered. "I don't know why Harry thinks he loves you."

Draco crossed his arms across his chest with his wand still clutched in his hand. "If it makes you feel any better, Weasel, I don't know why he does either," he said coldly. "Now move."

Ron shook his head and his smirk was replaced by a look of deep sadness. He didn't want to help this prat go after Harry but he loved Harry like his own brothers, and if this bastard in front of him was the one to save him, then it wasn't his place to interfere.

Ron's next words stunned Draco into silence. "He is in the Great Hall. Go. He needs your help." Ron turned and walked away, shoulders slumped. Draco felt a chill run down his spine as the thought crossed his mind that this was the last anyone would ever see of Ron Weasley. 

Fear stole his breath as Draco ran as fast as he could, hoping against hope that he would not be too late. He rushed through the doors into the Great Hall and stumbled to a stop, frozen in horror. A cry ripped itself from his throat at the scene laid out in front of him.

"No. No. NO!" he cried. "Please, God, this isn't happening." He forced himself to move, and he flew to the side of his lover, his friend, his everything.

"Harry," he choked, "please be alive." He ignored everything happening around them as he gathered the broken and bloody body of his lover into his arms. 

"Draco," Harry said in a barely audible voice, "I thought --" 

"Shh, I'm here," Draco reassured him in a shaking voice. He could hear the undertone of fear as he spoke. It couldn't end like this. It couldn't!

Harry reached up and drew a path with trembling fingers through the tears streaking down Draco's cheek. "Thank you for loving me," he breathed. 

"No," Draco sobbed as Harry's body went limp in his arms. "Please, God, even You can't be so cruel. Don't take him from me, too."

Draco heard malicious laughter beside him and looked up into the red eyes of the one who had taken everything in his life that was worth living for. First his family and now his lover.

He carefully, lovingly placed Harry's still body on the floor. He would do what Harry had been trying to keep him from when he had told him to stay rather than join the fight. Harry would be waiting for him when Draco finished the task his lover had started. 

"I'll come back to you, love," Draco whispered, placing a gentle kiss on Harry's scar. "I promise." He stood up, squaring his shoulders resolutely. He would do what must be done. Then he would join Harry.

After that. . .

Everything Else Could Wait.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you to ALL my reviewers and readers.

Disclaimer: do not own it but wish I did.

Enjoy!

~`*`~

Draco took one more look at his lover lying on the floor before he raised his eyes to the evil in front of him. He knew what Harry had had planned, he had sit in on enough of the meetings to know. He also knew that only Harry could kill Voldemort. 

Reaching down he picked up Harry's wand and prayed to every God he could remember hearing about and some he had made up at the shrine that was Harry. He would finish this.

Voldemort grinned and his eyes glowed red and Draco could only hope that Harry had had time to cast the spell before he had....**NO** don't think of that just get on with it so that you can join him.

"Ah, the little traitor has come to play." Voldemort hissed out. "Tell me Draco, was it worth it? Was he worth losing everything? You family? Your friends?"

Draco raised an eyebrow at that, shaking his head, he grinned. And that grin seemed to scare Voldemort more than anything else could.

"I didn't lose anything. I gained life." Draco said and lifting his wand cast the shield around himself that Harry had made him learn. He lifted Harry's wand as well and then said the words of the curse that he had heard Harry practice a million times. He didn't know if this was going to work but he would do it because he found that he was just like Harry. He did it because it was the right thing to do.

The curse hit Voldemort right between the eyes. The power from both Draco's and Harry's wand struck him and glued him to that spot. There was a bright flash of light and when Draco lowered his hand he saw before him the body of Voldemort standing in a pillar of white light.

Draco did not know if this was what was suppose to happen and he didn't really care. Voldemort was stopped even if it was temporary. 

Draco dropped to his knees and as he did his right knee hit something that was lying on Harry's side. He reached down and picked up a sword. He looked at it and it finally registered that this was the Gryffindor sword that Harry had told him about. Why he needed the sword came crashing into Draco.

Harry was going to have to sever Voldemort's head while still under the effects of the spell for Voldemort to die. But Draco couldn't use the sword. He wasn't a Gryffindor!

"Oh Harry what now?" He whispered to his lover.

A thought reached him and he made up his mind. Standing up he cast the _mobilcorpus _spell on Harry's body. When he was upright Draco took the sword and placed it in Harry's limp hands. He stood behind him and taking Harry's hands in his he drew both of their arms back and swinging the sword out, severed the head from Voldemort's body.

As the head came clear the spell was released and Draco could hear the fighting stop around him. A great moan echoed around the Hall as the Death Eaters realized that the Dark Lord was dead. A cheer arose from those that had fought for the Light.

Draco slowly lowered Harry's body back to the floor. He was so weak. He followed suit seconds later, his body instinctively curling around that of his lover.

Draco knew that it was over and he didn't care. It was done and now he needed to follow his life, his light, his everything. Because that was all that mattered.

Everything Else Could Wait.


	6. Chapter 6

He didn't know where the feeling of peace and warmth was coming from but it was pulling him up from the darkness he had descended too. He clung to the darkness. He didn't want to leave. Because if he did he would have to face the fact that everything was gone.

His life, his everything, was gone. And all he wanted now was the darkness in which he resided. He was safe here, here he could not hurt, and he could ignore the pain of loneliness.

Hollow pain hit him and he gasped for breath. It was as if fire had hit every single cell in his body. They were trying to wake him, this he knew, and he fought it with everything that he was. 

His light was waiting for him and he wanted to join him.

"Please Love, come home to me," was whispered in his ear over and over again. He couldn't tell if it was a real or imaginary voice but it drew him.

He didn't want to fight the voice for it was his everything calling him. So, he followed it whichever way it called him to go.

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My heart conjures

My mind thinks 

My fingers feel 

My thoughts 

My dreams

My voice 

"Please don't leave me here alone," he heard whispered lovingly in his deaf ear. He felt a shiver course through his pain filled body. He forced himself not to cry out from missing the comfort of the arms that belonged to that voice.

The voice that was all that he missed, his life, his everything.

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In the dark of the night I reach for you   
Reach into the stillness that you left   
And the darkness overtakes me   
And I dream no more   
I am as I have always been   
Alone

"Please don't leave me alone. I need you here." Was sobbed into his hair as he felt the arms around him. Arms that could not be. He was dreaming then. He liked this dream. He could live in this dream.

He could hear the poems that his lover had whispered to him as he moved over his body night after night. They were a way for him to express his feelings to him, something he had always had trouble doing. He wondered why he could hear him whispering them so clearly and why the arms around him felt so real.

He gasped as a new pain hit him and the darkness lightened around him. NO! He was going to his life they couldn't bring him back.

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You are the air that I breathe every morning

You are the light that I read by each night

You are the drink I quench my thirst with

You are the food that sustains my hunger

You are my life

You are my everything

"I love you"

Pain like he had never felt before hit his heart. The voice was sad and final, as if, saying goodbye.

He couldn't leave that voice or those arms. He fought the darkness he had embraced mere seconds before. He fought with everything that he had left. He wasn't sure if it was enough but fight he did.

A great gasp of breath and the darkness finally broke and his eyes snapped open. He glanced around fuzzily nothing in focus. He felt the arms around him and heard the voice sobbing in his ear. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. 

Although he uttered no sound the person holding him sensed something different and lifted himself to stare incredulously at him. He could move no parts of his body and his voice did not seem to work so he tried to say with his eyes what he could not say with words or do with his body.

He smiled at his light, his everything. He smiled his want, his need, his reason for breath.

And he knew from that glad cry and the tight hold that he had received the message.

He sighed and fell into a deep restful sleep. They could talk when he next awoke.

Everything Else Could Wait.

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Thank you all for reading. This is the end of this story. The poems are mine but the characters all belong to JKR. It does not matter which one the POV this story was about as it could be true for either of them. Once again, thank you for reading.


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